Kawasaki Puccetti Racing’s Kenan Sofuoglu crossed the finishing line with a 1.5 second advantage over former MCE British Superbike rider, PJ Jacobsen in the World Supersport race at Donington Park.
The Turkish superstar led from halfway through the opening lap after getting the better of the American with Swiss rider, Randy Krummenacher completing the rostrum in third. With the victory Sofuoglu extends his lead in the series by 26 points.
Elsewhere GRT Racing’s Gino Rea won the fastest Brit accolade, after he out-paced Profile Racing’s Luke Stapleford. The reigning British Supersport champ did have a strong start but in the end was overtaken by his fellow compatriot.
At first it was Jacobsen who got the hole-shot with Sofuoglu and Stapleford close behind, but that was only to last a few seconds as the reigning champ went into the lead at McLeans.
With nineteen laps to go Krummenacher decided that he wanted to join the party and made a move past Stapleford to edge into third, but on lap five the leading pair of Jacobsen and Sofuoglu gained a two second advantage over Krummenacher, Stapleford and Rea, with the Brit getting even closer to the Triumph of his fellow countryman.
Now with a clear track ahead of him at the front, the multiple Supersport champion was able pull away from the American and on the eighth lap of twenty had a 2.1 second lead.
Meanwhile slightly further down the pack the battle of the Brits emerged with Stapleford and Rea fighting it out for fourth, and with eleven laps to go Rea overtook Stapleford at Goddards to gain a place, and that is how it remained until the chequered flag appeared.
CIA Landlord Insurance’s Kyle Smith was tenth on the opening lap, but finished well inside the top ten in sixth, just behind Stapleford to make it a British P4, P5 and P6. Even though Smith did not make it on to the podium he still set the fastest lap of the race, with a 1’30.887. It was not a lap record though, as he was four tenths off the time, that is held by Jules Cluzel.
The Frenchman had an average start but did claw his way up the order to end the day in eighth, behind Baldolini, with Badovini and Zanetti completing the top ten. Wildcard rider, and British Supersport regular Andrew Irwin finished the race just outside the points in eighteenth, with Kyle Ryde in P21 and Stefan Hill in 25th.
